UW-Stout News

UW-Stout News Story

Packaging program recognized by national news website

February 28, 2013

The University of Wisconsin-Stout and one of its career-focused undergraduate programs have been recognized by a national news website.

The Daily Beast, part of Newsweek magazine, today included UW-Stout’s Bachelor of Science degree in packaging on a list of Most Overlooked schools. The list was based on nominations from website readers.

"This national recognition is appropriate because of the tremendous success our graduates have in the workplace," said Chancellor Charles W. Sorensen. "We are excited that we now have the opportunity to share this success with others across the country."

According to a report released last week by UW-Stout’s Career Services office, all of the school’s packaging graduates from 2011-12 found jobs. Furthermore, the average starting salary for those graduates was $55,000.

Earlier this week The Daily Beast published several top 25 lists of Most Overlooked schools. Then it asked readers to nominate other schools. The result was another list of about 650 reader-nominated schools, including UW-Stout for its packaging program.

The packaging program is the only one in the University of Wisconsin System and one of just a handful in the nation. Students learn various aspects of product packaging, including design, research and development, manufacturing and quality management, food packaging and graphic design.

“Graduates from our packaging program have a long history of going on to highly successful careers, including for companies such as General Mills, 3M, Medtronic and IBM,” said Jeff Anderson, dean of the College of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. “This program is a perfect example of how UW-Stout students are prepared to meet today’s needs of business and industry.”

Packaging is one of 28 majors that reported 100 percent job placement for 2011-12 graduates at UW-Stout, Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, which has a total of 44 undergraduate programs.

Overall, 97 percent of UW-Stout graduates from the 2011-12 class had either found jobs or were furthering their education, the report said, citing a 91.5 percent survey response rate from graduates. In addition, 79 percent of those graduates had found work in their field of study.